Moving abroad: How to Adapt

In a new country, you face a set of entirely new experiences; a new culture, language, and a new learning environment. Moving to a new place is exciting but it can also feel scary and overwhelming. You have to adapt to new people, a new language, a new way of doing things. Often you have to adjust to an unfamiliar climate too.

If you think you have culture shock and happen to experience anxiety, uncertainty or depression after a move, here are some tips to help you reduce the shock:

Accept the process

Be aware that you will go through this, and that this is okay. It is a process of adjustment, which means that it has a beginning, a middle and an end.

Accept the culture

Understanding the new culture is about more than learning the language; it is also about coming to comprehend the more subtle aspects such as non-verbal communication, values, and norms.It is tough to accept a new culture. Learning to accept the culture will take time, but having an open mind makes it easier. Being around Dutch people makes it a whole lot easier to get used to the cultural differences.

Explore your surroundings

Get out of your comfort zone and explore popular cultural sites and activities in the country you are visiting or living in. Also, take long walks around your new neighborhood to become familiar with the local coffee shops, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, banks, and the post office.

Settling in your new country

Moving to a foreign land is never easy. Heck, even moving to a different city is not easy. The unfamiliarity of the surroundings makes even the toughest cookies out there awfully homesick.

Here’s the thing. At some point or another, you’re going to miss home. Not just a little bit where you can give your folks a Skype or FaceTime call and suddenly it’s all better, but honest-to-goodness, full-blown, could-cry-for-days kinda homesick that will smack you in the heart. It’s hard.

It’s a really sucky feeling, but it’s something that can be overcome. Whether you need to put on some PJs and eat a pint of Ben & Jerry’s or Pancakes because it reminds you of home.Being homesick is a part of the territory when you move abroad. If you go into your adventures knowing that it will happen and you CAN get through it, you are definitely ahead of the curve.

Anyone who has relocated to a different country has dealt with at least some of the feelings described above. The most important thing to remember is that it’s something that all Expats deal with in one form or another, and it’s not because you are failing to fit in fast enough.

While the emotional journey will be different for everyone, what you are going through is one of the universal experiences for anyone living outside of their “own” country.

It will make you grow as a person, and you will learn to appreciate your own culture in new ways that you never could imagine, had you not taken that step beyond your borders into unknown territory.

xoxo

Chante’